Alguersuari leads another Carlin 1-2-3 in Bucharest

After a somewhat bad-tempered race this afternoon the Carlin team scored
yet another 1-2-3 on the streets of Bucharest, netting the team their
150th victory. The win for Jaime Alguersuari over Oliver Turvey and
Brendon Hartley means the title...

After a somewhat bad-tempered race this afternoon the Carlin team scored
yet another 1-2-3 on the streets of Bucharest, netting the team their
150th victory. The win for Jaime Alguersuari over Oliver Turvey and
Brendon Hartley means the title fight goes down to the wire at Donington
Park 6 weeks from now, with Turvey 12 points ahead of Alguersuari and 30
ahead of Hartley. After an attack of idiocy on the part of Max Chilton
(Hitech Racing) put out Sergio Perez (T-Sport) the Mexican still has a
mathematical chance as he is 39 points off Turvey with a maximum of 42
points up for grabs, but it looks like it will take a miracle to stop
the Carlin bandwagon now it's really gathered speed. In the National
Class Stefan Wilson (Fluid Motorsport) got the better of Hywel Lloyd (C
F Racing) after the Safety Car period caused by Chilton ended, while Jay
Bridger (Fluid Motorsport) ended up 3rd despite starting on class pole.

The race started in blistering heat (36ºC) and high humidity, and it
was clear that things were likely to get interesting with Atte Mustonen
(Double R Racing) starting from the back after messing up in qualifying
and Henry Arundel (Double R Racing) was banished back there with him for
stalling on the grid before the green flag lap and dropping behind the
rest of the field.

Things got heated even as the lights went out, and they tore into the
first corner with Turvey and Hartley both attempting to occupy the same
bit of track. As a result they both went wide and that let Alguersuari
through into the lead. Afterwards, Brendon was pretty miffed about it,
feeling that Oliver had pushed him far too hard, though it's fair to
say that Oliver seemed to feel the same about Brendon. When the dust
cleared, Turvey was 2nd and Hartley was 5th so he probably had more
to feel aggrieved about, stuck as he was behind John Martin (Double R
Racing) and Chilton. Perez, on the other hand, made a pretty good start
and managed to move up to 8th, while Ericsson got it all wrong and ended
up pretty much last after stalling on the grid. That helped Mustonen who
jumped up four places, and Arundel who followed him through.

In the National Class, Bridger messed up the first corner, dropping back
to 4th in class, which allowed Lloyd into the lead from Wilson with
Steven Guerrero (T-Sport) also getting through.

At the front Turvey was trying to find a way past Alguersuari but
couldn't quite match the Spaniard's pace, while Hartley was all over
the back of Chilton. Eventually he found a way through, and then set
about Martin. He went round one side of the Australian while Chilton
attempted to go round the other. There was nowhere near enough space for
all three cars which meant something had to give. What gave was Chilton,
who simply ran out of room while Hartley breezed past and vanished into
the distance. And in a way that's where the trouble really started, with
a train of cars building up behind Martin whose car was comparatively a
lot slower but also seemingly much wider than anyone else's. He now had
Esteban Guerrieri (Ultimate Motorsport) all over him while Perez was
a place back with Chilton now behind him and trying to recover. They
were joined in the procession by Michael Devaney (Ultimate Motorsport),
Walter Grubmuller (Hitech Racing), Sam Abay (Carlin Motorsport) and
Ricardo Teixeira (Ultimate Motorsport), all of them bumping and barging
as they tried not to trip over each other.

While they were all stuck behind Martin, the Carlin boys were now 1-2-
3 and were running away from the squabbling mob behind Martin. In his
pursuit of Alguersuari and Turvey Hartley set the fastest lap of the
race, but the real action was in the midfield area. Perez was now
looking very leery behind Chilton, and no-one looked too comfortable.
However it was clear that whatever else was going on, Perez really,
really wanted to get past Chilton. He was glued to the Hitech car
in every corner while he worked out where to make his move, while
Grubmuller was giving Devaney similar treatment and Guerrieri was
skittering after Martin. It wasn't long before Chilton and Guerrieri
were both warned for using the escape road, and then Perez found his
way alongside Chilton into the first corner. Perez pulled ahead and cut
across and Chilton simply declined to concede the corner, punting the
Mexican driver in the gearbox. Perez spun, Chilton ended up going a long
way off and then, just as Perez was figuring out whether he could get
going again or now, Teixeira arrived completely unsighted and smacked
into the side of the T-Sport car. Chilton drove away which was probably
as well for him, while Perez and Teixeira were left to await the rescue
truck.

Needless to say the Safety Car had to be deployed. Alguersuari's lead
evaporated as he led round Turvey and Hartley while Martin and the rest
of the mob caught up again. Guerrieri was 5th from Devaney, Grubmuller,
Abay, Oliver Oakes (Eurotek Racing) and National Class leader Lloyd.
11th was Wilson who was in front of Bridger, Mustonen, Guerrero,
Ericsson, Salman Al Khalifa (T-Sport), Arundel, Philip Major (Fortec
Motorsport) and the cause of all the trouble, Chilton. The only thing to
be said in favour of the Demolition Derby was that it had put Mustonen
and Ericsson back into the points. Chilton was almost immediately given
a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident while the rest
of the field settled down to wait for the restart.

At the restart, Alguersuari held steady and the Carlin trio began to
break away again almost immediately, leaving Martin to his own devices
once again. Chilton gets drive through for causing accident. Of course
all that had allowed Hartley to catch right up and now he was looking
very keen to pass Turvey if he possibly could. In fact he was all over
the show, desperately looking for a way round. He wasn't about to do
anything silly though and two laps into the restart they were around
4 seconds clear of the pack, where things seemed to have calmed down
slightly. It was now all happening further back as evidenced by Major's
retirement and Mustonen following him out of the running shortly after.
The other thing that happened at the restart was that Wilson got the
drop on Lloyd when the latter made a mistake and was now leading the
National Class.

While Turvey seemed unable to shake off Hartley, and Martin had a queue
behind him, Chilton finally came in to serve his penalty, pretty much
just as Martin un-stoppered the bottleneck by going off all on his own
in the usual spot and ending up in the barriers but fairly well out of
the way. That all had a ripple effect, letting the Ultimate pair of
Guerrieri and Devaney finally run a sensible pace, while the problem
area was now behind Abay, who had the National Class leaders stuck
behind him, and Bridger who wasn't at all keen to let Ericsson through
even if he wasn't in the same class. Abay was really holding up Wilson
and Lloyd but there wasn't a thing they could do about it. It must have
given Wilson the odd heart-in-mouth moment though, given how close Lloyd
was getting now.

However, from here on in common sense prevailed, and Alguersuari came
home to a classy win, ahead of Turvey, who consolidated his series lead
despite the fact that Hartley took more than a couple of looks at ways
past his team-mate. Guerrieri claimed 4th from Devaney, Grubmuller,
Oakes, Abay, National Class winner Wilson, and Lloyd. 11th was Bridger
from Ericsson, Al Khalifa, Guerrero, Arundel and Chilton. There were
no other survivors. Afterwards it was announced that Chilton had been
awarded a further penalty for taking Perez out of the race and will he
will consequently start the next race ten grid places back from wherever
he qualifies.